It seldom falls out that a _Common Mistress_ troubles her Head much with
Particular Inclinations, though there are some Mercenaries so Generous
yet, in the Way of their Profession, that rather then not Trade at all,
they’ll Trade to Loss. But This was not the Case of the Sorrowful Wight
here in the Fable: Her Trouble was the Loss of the _Coat_, not the Loss
of the _Man_. ’Tis the same Thing with Cheats and Sharpers, that ’tis
with Whores; and the same Humour, in short, that we find in All Humane
Beasts of Prey. There can be No Friendship where there’s Treachery; but
there are Degrees in Treachery it self; As the Betraying of an Honourable
Confidence, and of a Sacred Trust, is the Basest of All Perfidies.
This Shuffling Inclination shews it self in us Betimes; And Children
do Naturally Apply them selves to their Little Shifts and Frauds. Now
’tis not much Amiss to let them Understand so much of the Roguery of
the World, as to secure them from being Wheedled, and Impos’d upon:
Provided that under Colour of Teaching them to Discover Abuses, they be
not Encourag’d to Practice them: For he that perfectly Understands False
Play, lies under a Dangerous Temptation, at some time or Other, to make
Use on’t. And when he’s Once In, ’tis no Easie Matter to get him Out
again. Never was any Whore yet so Impudent, as not to feel some Touch
of Modesty and Remorse, upon the First False Step she made: But Wicked
People Harden by Little and Little, and so go on by Degrees, till they
are past all Sense, either of Shame, or of Conscience. _Cheating_ and
_Bawdry_ go together in the _World_, as well as in the _Fable_, and the
Professors of the Trade are as Insatiable in the One way, as they are in
the Other. When they have left a Poor Devil no Flesh on’s Back, they’l
Quarrell for his very Skin too, as the _Jilting Jade_ here did for her
Cully’s _Coat_, when she had left him Nothing else.